Indubitable Issues and Pull List (08/03/16)

LOOKING FOR BOOKS TO BUY THIS WEEK?

LOOK NO FURTHER.

HERE ARE SOME ISSUES THAT WILL NOT DISAPPOINT.

Tyler’s Recommendation…

Kill or Be Killed #1

“A new comic from Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips, and Bettie Breitweiser. That really is all you need to know for this to be an automatic pull, but I’ll shed a little more light on the premise. Assigned with killing one person a month, an NYU grad student must figure out who to kill, and still keep a conscience in this crazy world. Brubaker himself described it as Death Wish meets Breaking Bad and 1970’s Spider-Man”

Cosmo’s Recommendation’s………

Trees #14

“After a first arc full of sprawling world building, Warren Ellis narrowed his focus for the second. The story grew more explicitly political while also developing its characters deeper. It made for fascinating reading, especially when combined with Jason Howard’s expressive artwork. What shifts will the third arc bring? You can never be sure with Ellis, though, it’s a safe bet that Trees will continue being the best Ellis book currently running. Which means, naturally, you definitely need to check it out . . .”

Shutter Volume 4

“Meanwhile, Shutter just keeps getting better & better, as each arc outdoes the previous. Keatinge’s scripts continue hitting poignant emotional notes, while Leila Del Duca’s art remains stunning page after page. Every chapter is striking, though, #18 is already on my short list of best single issues of the year. Don’t miss out.”

Josh’s Recommendation’s…….

Lady Killer 2 #1

“Joelle Jones hit series is back! Mixing ‘Mad Men’ with ‘Dexter’, Lady Killer is a series brimming with gore, intrigue, and good old-fashioned family values. Not to mention gorgeous artwork by Jones herself, this is an issue worth checking out even if you missed the first mini.”

Nightwing #2

“Tim Seely has brought Dick Grayson back and thrown him into the deep end. Alone in a foreign land with an even harsher mentor than Batman, can Dick survive working undercover for the Parliament of Owls or will they break the man that grew out of Batman’s shadow?”

As I’m sure you all have noticed, the pull list page is no longer present. We here at Nothing But Comics have decided to combine this weekly with the discussion of which comics we are all buying for the week. Included below is the link of our personal favorite product guide. Don’t worry, this is not an advertisement; the website is not paying us anything to push it (not that we’d object!). Comic List just happens to be totally awesome. So check out that massive list and then come on back here to let us know what you are buying.

Ya, I’m dropping Flash, Batman, Titans and JL soon. I like Wonder Woman the most, I’m sticking with Superman and aquaman for a while. The Green Lantern that came out last week was pretty good. Double shipping doesn’t help. It sucks.

Dropping Batman? I thought it has been one of the stronger debuts of this Rebirth era. Did you make it to issue four?
Wonder Woman has been pretty damn great. The only problem I’ve had with it is the alternating storylines. I understand why it is necessary to switch off, but I really feel like it breaks the flow. Dean and I talk more about this on the podcast, which should be up this afternoon.
I wish I could say that I liked the Green Lantern book, but really I only enjoyed the art.

I really like Tom King on Vision and I liked the Batman plane glider issue but I am a very harsh Judge of Batman and Spider-Man writers. I’ve just read so much of those two characters that I get bored if I don’t read something nearly perfect or innovative. Most of the Rebirth single issues were horrible to me and vastly improved at the regular issue ones (including Batman). I’ve read all the King Batman issues that have come out unless one came out this week. Double shipping actually forces me to cut books faster because if I don’t I’m stuck with 4 books I don’t really want to read due to discount comics 2 months in advance previews ordering. The art in Batman isn’t doing it for me either. For me, most of these DC books really pail in comparison to what Marvel put out 6 months ago so even Wonder Woman has some flaws but I love it compared to the other new DC books. Similarly with Green Lantern it was passable for me as a DC book but I would rather read a Marvel or Valiant superhero book. I read so many of the new 52 issues that I think I’ve given DC too much of a chance. Next time that they issue a bunch of number 1s I’m going to take a pass. There is some pro Marvel bias in me but I don’t think that explains all of my opinion. I think that Aaron and Lemire are the two best writing talents in comics right now and DC had them but couldn’t keep them. They should have kept them.
I was thinking of seeing Suicide Squad tonight and then I saw the reviews…. Hmmmm, and the trend continues.

I just read Batman 4. It’s not really the pencils that bother me but the coloring. Not a fan of the coloring. Everything is dark. It’s not a bad book but it seems like just a regular Batman book to me. This issues quick Jeckyl and Hyde transformation of the Batsuperman happened too quickly for my taste as well. I like character development to happen more slowly otherwise it just seems forced (with or without mind control angles). I read “Kill or Be Killed”, 007, and “Animosity” along with Batman 4 and I enjoyed the Brubaker and Ellis books much more. That’s stiff completion though. I might have stuck with it if wasn’t for double shipping. Double shipped books need to be perfect for me.

Hey, I get it. There are many times when I consider dropping pretty much everything from DC and Marvel. Comics are just too expensive to buy bad ones. If it wasn’t for this site, I would probably drop all weekly titles and just by mostly Image trades. But it’s all about keeping up with the conversation, and making sure I’m ready for the podcast. One day I’ll do away with my long boxes.

Ah. Halloween long box dispersal! Unfortunately I’m in that in between zone of having way too many comics to grade and sell (unless I make it a full time job for the next few years) and having too much invested in key issues to just sell them in bulk or give them away. So I’m kind of stuck. My comics are like my ball and chain now but they were once a sense of pride. #Whiteman’sproblems.

Yeah, I’ve been discarding large chunks of my collection recently, mostly stuff from the last couple years. I have very little that has significant value so it’s not a big deal. And honestly, unless you have some rare, key issues (New Mutants 98, Walking Dead 1 for example) most comics from the past couple decades aren’t worth that much anyway. The widespread availability of trades and digital copies have really killed the back issue market. Hell, often an out of print trade goes for significantly more than the actual issues it collects.

Not everything has been collected or put on comixology, though, so sometimes single issues remain the only choice.

This habit, I mean hobby, of ours is not overly kind to apartment dwellers . . .

Ya, I agree. I used to be a completist and I would track down entire runs or first appearances of my favorite characters. Normally I would choose comics in poor (G, VG, sometimes F) condition when buying 60s stuff but there is still some value to it. Ya, new comics aren’t really worth anything 90s and 21st century stuff and most 80s and 70s stuff apart from key issues. Ive got stuff like full runs of Bone and TMNT as well in high grade. I suppose I could sell runs but even that would take me years. I’ve been contemplating just donating them to the “comic book legal defense fund” If it ever looks like I’m about to croak but that’s probably a long time away (crossing my fingers).

Global warming is my enemy. When I move to my new place I think I’ll put up a frankenstein “fire bad” poster up in my comic room. After that I can go see an orthopedic surgeon to fix my inevitable slipped disc that’s going to be created when I try to move all this crap.

When the wife and I move into our house roughly a year ago, I nearly killed myself trying to carry the three totes worth of trades.
As for long boxes, I’ve already made a rule. Currently, I have three of them. Whenever I run out of room, I do a massive purge. My LCBS allows me to trade in issues for store credit. I haven’t paid for weekly comics in a few months thanks to that.

Oh that’s awesome, that you can trade them. Moving is really tricky for me because my first comics collection was whipped away in a basement flood in long boxes. Now I have everything in rubber maid plastic boxes that are super heavy. Literally back breaking. I used to have the muscle and friend power to move them but this time I’ve purchased some hydrolic lifts. Not looking forward.

I’m sorry to hear you lost your original collection. A flooding basement is something that worried me when we first moved in. Practically everything we owned was stored downstairs while we completely renovated the upstairs. Thankfully nothing happened.
Storing your collection in rubbermaid containers is a great idea. It’s funny what we do for this silly hobby.

That’s the process I’m going through now. I went a year (maybe more) without filing away any comics so between new releases and back issue splurging at conventions it really piled up. Yet, I forced myself to not buy another long box. (Got seven already stuffed into a walk-in closet). Made a lot of tough decisions about stuff I liked but honestly will never read again.

The hard part will come in the spring. My mom’s moving and I still have five or six long boxes of comics at her house from when I was younger. There’s a lot of stuff in there I can’t part with. So, may need to figure out how to squeeze another long box into that closet after all . . .

I’m also revaluing runs that I used to think it was important to hold on to. My favorites, naturally, I’ll never let go of, but others are sliding. Some get upgraded to trades, but honestly that creates a whole new problem as my shelves are already full of all kinds of books.

Oh well, at least CDs are compact, so my hundreds of those don’t take up too much space . . .

Ya.. I’m scared of computer crashes as well. I have multiple back ups but I’m still scared of that. Not sure why. I think that one of my backups should be enough to recover them but I always wonder about a lightening strike if i have two computers plugged in and my external drive plugged in at the same time. Not likely but still possible. I once lost a brand new computer when a lightening bolt struck my neighbors house and literally blew off the top of his chimney (news flash, surge protectors don’t always work), My first and last Alienware computer turned into a really expensive paper weight.